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About Me

Just a bit of background on my experience in the world of drums. I was born into the world of music with my Dad playing drums and my mother a singer in the same country and western band. My interest in music grew in grade school when I was able to experiment with different instruments. Drums were the instrument of choice and my passion grew from there.

At the age of 12 I began playing in a marching band up until the age of 18. Being a part of the drum section created alot of my discipline and focus on, which I believe allowed me to become a confident drummer. Even before leaving high school I played a couple of times in my Dad’s country western band.

Once I completed high school, I auditioned for a local band and they picked me out of ten other drummers. I think it was because I could also sing, more than just my drumming ability but, I also had real long hair and fit right in with the R&R image thing. We did some touring and played mostly six nights a week locally for around three years together. From there I was in various other cover bands and did some recording in a couple of studios in Montreal.

I would be remiss without saying that the most influential person of my drumming is Neil Peart of Rush. All through my career, Rush has been more than just a band that I listened to. Neil’s style of drumming and attitude became part of my character and ability beyond any other drummer I have tried to emulate. As I grew up through the years, I can’t help to feel that their music helped shape not only my talent, but also my development as a person. Neil’s lyrics were very different from the cookie cutter commercial stuff everyone else was listening to. He was and will always be a drummer that I respect for not only his talent but his humbleness in and out of the “limelight” during his career. Thanks Neil….nuff said.

And that brings us to my invention of the PoleCat. Neil had an enormous kit back then and in the 80’s decided to remove all the legs from all those stands to give his kit a more clean look. For each stand, he added an extra tube with an outside thread so as to connect to an opposite piece that was bolted into his stage. Each stand had to be twisted into the base by hand until seated and in the correct position. I thought that it was an amazing way to have a drum kit stay pit and I new right away that it was something I wanted to do for myself. I soon realized that it was way to difficult to make all the tubes and bases the way he did so over the years I tried to come up with something better. I tried to shove a piece of plumbing connector in the base tube and a threaded flat piece on my stage, but that still had the issue of turning the entire stand around and around to seat it. Then one day, as the saying goes, I was coming out of an in-ground pool and there at the end of the ladder was the answer. There were two round bases holding the ladder down on the cement. I went to a pool store the next day and found two of the same bases. I brought them home and began to modify them with some bondo filler so that the tube would fit better and there would be enough thickness for some threading to tighten the wing bolt. I then brought it to a small metal pouring business and he made some copies out of aluminum for me. From there I finished the other details by drilling and threading myself. I used them for three or four years all the while being asked by other drummers if I could make some for them. So finally we took the plunge and moved forward with the business.